1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to serial interfaces for integrated circuits.
2. Description of the Background Art
Serial interfaces are used to communicate data between devices in a system. Serial interface protocols have been developed at increasingly fast data rates. Examples of industry-standard protocols for serial interfaces include PCI Express® (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), XAUI (X Attachment Unit Interface), sRIO (serial Rapid IO), and many others.
As the data rates of serial interfaces have increased beyond one gigabit-per-second, jitter has become a significant performance limitation. Jitter relates to the deviation in time of signal transitions from their ideal transition points.